WATERDEN, John

More may be added to the earlier biography.2 The Commons 1386-1421, iv. 782-3.

During the Parliament of 1429, Waterden and his fellow MP, John Parmenter*, acquired a charter of liberties for Lynn known as ‘the Rider’ and obtained a royal commission for the repair of the town ditch.3 King’s Lynn bor. recs., translation of hall bk. 1422-9, 1450, KL/C 7/29, p. 284b. It is unclear whether this was a renewal of a previous or a completely new grant. The Parliament sat in two sessions over 129 days but they received wages for 141, taking into account the time they spent travelling between Lynn and Westminster and, perhaps, pursuing other business on the town’s behalf. They each received just over £23 in wages, since at this date Lynn still allowed its MPs a relatively generous daily allowance of 3s. 4d.4 Ibid. 273.

In early 1430, while the Parliament was still sitting, Waterden’s putative brother Richard, then mayor of Lynn, died in office. He had made a will – no longer extant – in which he had appointed the MP and Philip Frank* his executors. It was in this capacity that the pair were obliged to render account at the Exchequer in Michaelmas term 1431, for goods that Richard had seized for the Crown while mayor.5 E159/208, recorda Mich. rot. 5d. Within a year, Frank was also dead, since John Boucher and Waterden respectively replaced him and another recently deceased burgess, Bartholomew Petipas*, on Lynn’s council of the 24 in September 1432.6 KL/C 7/3, f. 28.

In January 1432, a few months before his third Parliament opened, Waterden and two other Lynn burgesses, Thomas Botkesham* and Thomas Burgh*, agreed to submit to the judgement of the borough’s common council in a dispute between them and John Warner†.7 Ibid. In November the following year, Botkesham, by then mayor of Lynn, and Waterden were party to the settlement of an annuity of £10 for life on Burgh’s wife, Elizabeth, previously the spouse of Thomas Hunt† of Lynn.8 CP25(1)/169/187/90.

Given Waterden’s training in the law, it is conceivable that he was the John Waterden appointed to a commission of gaol delivery at Ely, Cambridgeshire, in July 1434.9 C66/436, m. 30d.